| I am the proud owner of an anti-library. I don't own any | | | | Kung Fu. If in that process you take notes at nauseam, |
| books that I have read. That's not to say that I haven't | | | | you will retain a greater percentage of what that one |
| read any books. Quite to the contrary, I have read a | | | | teacher showed you. However, if you learn Kung Fu |
| mountain of them, but as soon as I get to the end of | | | | from three masters, Muay Thai from three different |
| the last page, I either mail them to friends or simply | | | | masters, and Ju Jitsu from three more different |
| throw them out. I believe that only unread books have | | | | masters, the result will be a true understand of martial |
| value. | | | | arts, with no notes needed. |
| Look at the book shelves of most any person and | | | | In Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he tells you to |
| you will see all the books they have read. People buy | | | | throw his book out as soon as you finish reading it. His |
| a book, read it, and put it on the shelf like an ornament. | | | | intent is to open your awareness. He wants you to |
| People keep their books because it makes them feel | | | | find things that are relevant and true for you through |
| intelligent to look at everything they have read. It's as if | | | | the process of seeing his ideas. He warns that |
| they believe that for every 10 books they finish and | | | | memorizing what he says at the expense of gathering |
| put on the shelf, they gain one I.Q. point. | | | | other information and inserting your own reflections will |
| This approach never made any sense to me. Once I | | | | only cripple your true learning. |
| read a book, I'm done with it. What am I going to do, | | | | The first time I read the word anti-library, I was reading |
| read the same book twice? Logically, I know that I get | | | | about a man named Umberto Eco. He has over |
| much more value out of reading two different books | | | | 30,000 books in his anti-library. This is a man who |
| than out of reading one book twice. If I happen to read | | | | understands that if you focus on what you have read, |
| something that really hits me, I take notes by putting it | | | | you will believe yourself to be knowledgeable, and be |
| into an electronic knowledge depository on my | | | | wrong. If you focus on what you have not read, you |
| computer. Once it's there, keeping track of these gems | | | | will believe yourself to be ignorant, and be wrong. |
| of insight becomes much easier than looking for | | | | Given the two options, I would like to believe myself to |
| highlighted pages inside of a physical book. Now you | | | | be ignorant. |
| may think that the process of taking notes requires a | | | | Umberto Eco is a philosopher who has written many |
| lot of time, but you would be wrong. The average | | | | books of his own. Do you ever wonder how |
| book I read has no more than three things that make it | | | | philosophers come up with so much to write about? |
| into my electronic knowledge depository. The most | | | | They do lots of reading. That was the number one |
| influential book I read last year resulted in less than one | | | | secret I learned as I became a writer myself. Consider |
| page of notes. | | | | this: if you read one book on a new subject and then |
| If you read one book on a subject you know nothing | | | | wrote a book on that subject, your book would be |
| about, such as the mating habits of the endangered | | | | very similar to the one you just read. If, however, you |
| African penguins, every page of that one book will | | | | read 100 books on a new subject, without taking any |
| contain new information for you. Take notes, and you'll | | | | notes, and then wrote a book of your own, you would |
| end up rewriting most of the book. An interesting thing | | | | be pleasantly surprised by the results. |
| happens, however, if you read 20 books on that | | | | Not only would it be free of plagiarism, but it would also |
| subject. By the time you read number 20, you have | | | | reflect your personality. This is what Bruce Lee's |
| actually encountered the same information over and | | | | advice was in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Take what |
| over again. At this point, repetition has burned the | | | | works for you and make it yours. Focus more on |
| relevant information into your memory, but the other | | | | what you don't know rather than what you can't |
| reason you remember the information so well is that | | | | remember. Are you ready to start building your |
| different authors have presented the information in | | | | antilibrary? Click on the link below to get my free |
| different ways, from different perspectives. | | | | eBook Domination Basics and learn how to get more |
| If you learn Kung Fu from one master, you have | | | | out of life right now. |
| learned some of what that one master knows about | | | | |